Filmmaking Basics/Thumbnail Storyboard/Examples/Example 1

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This is an example Thumbnail Storyboard

 * Start with a wide shot
 * In this example, we start with a wide shot from behind the people.. In this view we see the two people looking at the movie poster on the wall.  Then we dolly in to get a better view of the movie poster.


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The Thumbnail Storyboards for "Seduced by the Dark Side"
EXTERIOR - The local movie theater - NIGHT

Fade In Dolly In

(1) The Young Person and Old Person stand looking at the movie poster outside the theater.


 * I want to start with an establishing shot which shows two people looking at the poster on the side wall of a local cinema. After two seconds of street sounds, I want to start the "Star Wars" musical theme as the poster becomes larger in the frame as the camera dollies in. I want to stretch this out as much as possible so once the camera is close enough to the poster to start the music for the poster, I want the camera to slow down and move steadily inward at the music plays for a full five seconds.


 * Note: This is a wide angle shot to give the feeling of being far apart. The camera slowly dollies in. (Example: a 24mm lens in 35mm still camera equivalents)

Pedestal Down

(2) Young Person: "That was a great movie..."


 * I want the young person to begin talking before the audience even sees the young person's face.

Dolly Left

(3) Young Person (continued): "but I do not understand one thing."


 * After the camera dollies in and it dollies left (trucks left), I want to see the face of the boy as he turns toward the old person (and toward the camera.)

Cut To

(4) Old Person: "What's that?"


 * I want to use a wide angle shot to emphasize the emotional distance between the two characters.

Cut To

(5) Young Person: "How can anyone be seduced by the Dark Side?"


 * I still want to use a wide angle shot but not as wide as before. I still want the audience to feel that the two people are emotionally very far apart.

Cut To

(6) The old person thinks for a while.


 * Now I want to become more emotionally involved with the old person. Therefore, I will begin using a mild telephoto lens.  I want to pause for three seconds as "thinking music" plays.  This will build tension.



(7) Old Person: "What computer do you have at home?"


 * I want to use a mild telephoto (85 mm lens in 35 mm film camera equivalent)

Cut To

(8) Young Person (eagerly): "A Macintosh!"


 * I want to use a mild telephoto (85 mm lens in 35 mm film camera equivalent). Just enough to feel some warmth to the scene but not too much.


 * For music, I just want a single musical note in the background, possibly angelic voices.

Cut To

(9) Old Person: "But what computer does your father use at work?"


 * Now I want to use a telephoto lens to give a warm and close feeling (135 mm lens in 35 mm film camera equivalent)


 * Before the man speaks, I want about 2 seconds of music to indicate that he knows what he is doing.

Cut To

(10) The young person thinks for a moment.


 * I want to use a portrait telephoto to give a warm and close feeling (135 mm lens in 35 mm film camera equivalent)


 * I want to stretch this out as long as possible. Therefore, I want five seconds of "Serious Thinking Music" to fill this gap in the dialog.



(11) Young Person (amazed and excited): "Seduced by the Dark Side!"


 * I want to use a portrait telephoto to give a warm and close feeling (135 mm lens in 35 mm film camera equivalent)


 * To emphasize this, once the young person says this, I want a (musical) cord from the "Star Wars" theme.

Cut To

(12) The Old Person smiles.


 * Now I want to use portrait telephoto lense to give a warm and close feeling (135 mm lens in 35 mm film camera equivalent). Again, I want to stretch this out as long as possible so I want really powerful music here which is very warm and happy.

Cut To

(13) Old Person and the Young Person walk toward home together.


 * I want to use a portrait telephoto to give a warm and close feeling (135 mm lens in 35 mm film camera equivalent). This is shot full frame of just the old person and the young person. The rest is a matte painting.  The dolly out shot will be done simply by compositing this into the matte painting and zooming out. Since the actual movie set is just a blank wall and a movie poster, everything else is a matte painting.  Threrefore, I can use a 3D animated matte painting with characters from the Star Wars movie walking around the streets in front of the movie cinema.  And of course, I want great music to associate the scene with the space port in Star Wars.

(14) Fade to Black.

The End



Point Of Reference:
This scene will be filmed outside the line. (Away from the poster = In the pink area). Therefore, the camera will never cross the line. The Floor Plan for the Movie
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 * Look at the other examples by going to the index at the top of this page.


 * Or continue this lesson at What software for thumbnail storyboards? to learn how to get started storyboarding.


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